The Country & Western Music Portfolio

On the lost, lonesome country-and-western highway, the veterans of hard times and heartbreak—think George Jones, Wynonna Judd, Lee Ann Womack, Merle Haggard—are making it through the night and telling tales with new talent such as Gretchen Wilson, Keith Urban, Julie Roberts, and Shooter Jennings. Colored by folk, gospel, rock, and blues, the sound of small towns and dirt roads is everywhere, from beer joints to the White House. Honky-tonk angels and hillbilly heroes, ethereal or outlaw, these stars sing us back home.

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THE REBELS: SHELBY LYNNE, WILLIE NELSON, AND SHOOTER JENNINGS Singers, songwriters, musicians, truth tellers.Lynne: 10 albums; one Grammy. Nelson: more than 300 albums (seven multi-platinum, 11 platinum, seven gold); six Grammys; one Grammy Legend award; one Grammy Lifetime Achievement award. Jennings: two albums. Misfits, rough around the edges, irreverent in their different ways, they were never destined for “the Nashville sound”—what guitarist Chet Atkins once described (while jangling change in his pocket) as “the sound of money.” Forty years ago, Nelson’s loving wisdom cut through political leanings and class; hippies and rednecks flocked to him in equal numbers. Now he is a national treasure who performs some 200 shows a year. Son of original outlaw Waylon Jennings, Shooter has brought manly, barroom energy back to country—not to mention a little fun. He infuses his southern-rock sound with old-school outlaw-country storytelling—you know, songs about ditching your girl at the waffle restaurant, hitting on her mom, and shooting her dog along the way. For 10 years Lynne sweated it out in Nashville, until she won the Best New Artist Grammy in 2000 for I Am Shelby Lynne—delivered by what Tammy Wynette called “the best voice in country music.” She’s tender, but get too personal and she might bite your head off between beers. Photographed by Mark Seliger at Universal Studios in Universal City, California, on February 9, 2006.

THE HILLBILLY ROCK STAR: KENNY CHESNEY Singer, songwriter, guitarist.
Twelve albums (five multi-platinum, two platinum, three gold); two Country Music Association awards; six Academy of Country Music awards. Between filling stadiums in the heartland and sports arenas in the coastal cities (and a brief marriage to Renée Zellweger), Kenny Chesney made time recently to play the White House East Room for a crowd that included one of his biggest fans, George W. Bush. With a sturdy voice and country-clever lyrics (“Tequila loves me even if you don’t”), Chesney delivers melodies that are clear and catchy. On his latest studio album, The Road and the Radio, he sings of love, small-town life, and beer-fueled Mexican idylls with an attractive sincerity. Somehow Chesney manages to present his everyday themes with a whiz-bang stage show, which has been nicely captured on his new CD, Kenny Chesney Live: Live Those Songs Again.Photographed by Jonas Karlsson on Topanga Beach in Malibu, California, on May 21, 2006.

**THE REDNECK WOMAN: GRETCHEN WILSON Singer, songwriter, guitarist, author, hell-raiser.Here for the Party, to stores months ahead of schedule. It is still going strong after having sold nearly five million copies. On her second album, All Jacked Up, which hit No. 1 on both the country and pop charts, Wilson praises the farmer “with dirt on his hands” and disses Paris Hilton “with her big fake smile and her painted on tan.” The ballad “I Don’t Feel Like Loving You Today” is Tammy Wynette–worthy, and she even throws in a cover of Billie Holiday’s “Good Morning Heartache.” Coming soon is a memoir, Redneck Woman, which will chronicle her rise from teenage bartender to single mom and down-home diva of the airwaves. Photographed by Mark Seliger in Nashville on March 22, 2006.

THE PROS: LEE ANN WOMACK AND GEORGE JONES Quintessential country singers.Womack: seven albums (one multi-platinum, two platinum, two gold); one Grammy; six Country Music Association awards; five Academy of Country Music awards. Jones: more than 200 albums (two platinum, six gold); two Grammys; seven Country Music Association awards; four Academy of Country Music awards; member, Country Music Hall of Fame; winner, National Medal of Arts, 2002. George Jones is one of Lee Ann Womack’s heroes. She learned to sing by listening to his records while growing up in the same East Texas region where he came from. Known for her 2000 crossover mega-hit, “I Hope You Dance,” Womack pays homage to the country of the sort made famous by Jones on her latest release, There’s More Where That Came From. Jones, the hard-living singer of such classics as “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” “She Thinks I Still Care,” “Just One More,” and a slew of heartbreaking duets with Tammy Wynette and Melba Montgomery, is arguably the best interpreter in the history of the genre. His most recent releases are the solo effort Hits I Missed … and One I Didn’t and, with Merle Haggard, Kickin’ Out the Footlights … Again. Jones, at 75, still plays roughly 100 shows a year. Photographed by Mark Seliger at Jones’s house in Franklin, Tennessee, on March 17, 2006.

THE MAN: KRIS KRISTOFFERSON Singer, songwriter, musician, actor.
Twenty-nine albums (five gold); three Grammys; one Country Music Association award; one Academy of Country Music award; one Golden Globe; member, Country Music Hall of Fame; more than 50 films. After turning down a plum teaching job at West Point, Kris Kristofferson swept floors at Columbia Records in Nashville. There, with the help of Jack Daniel’s, he wrote what would become some of the most emotionally stirring, intelligent songs in the country-music canon: “Me and Bobby McGee,” “Help Me Make It Through the Night,” and “Sunday Morning Coming Down.” Janis Joplin, Sammi Smith, and Johnny Cash first made these famous, while Kristofferson was singing them himself, often at L.A.’s Troubadour. Cut to a second career, in the movies, working for directors such as Sam Peckinpah and Martin Scorsese and sharing a hot tub with Barbra Streisand in A Star Is Born. After a personal and professional meltdown in the early 80s, redemption came in the form of three fellow outlaws—Cash, Willie Nelson, and Waylon Jennings—with whom he formed the Highwaymen. While he referred to the band as “three legends and a janitor,” he was, for them, the profound, emotionally articulate center—the inspiration, as Cash once put it, “to write better [songs].” This year’s This Old Road, made with rock producer Don Was, has a sparseness and depth which put it in the new pantheon of must-have country-rock collaborations. Photographed by Mark Seliger at the Carter-Cash Estate in Hendersonville, Tennessee, on March 18, 2006.

THE HEARTBREAKER: JULIE ROBERTS Singer, songwriter, ingenue.
Two albums (one gold). South Carolina native Julie Roberts doesn’t look the way she sings. She’s purty, with a fresh, cheerful, wholesome appearance, but she sings raw, with a bluesy voice that lends itself especially to the gritty heartbreak songs that are fast becoming her stock-in-trade. Nashville could have marketed her as a sex symbol of the month, but her critically acclaimed self-titled debut album and the even better follow-up, Men & Mascara, have the substance of an artist who’s in it for the long haul. A few years back, Roberts was working as an executive assistant to Luke Lewis, co-chairman of Universal Music Group Nashville. Unbeknownst to her colleagues, she was playing the clubs at night and won an admirer in producer Brent Rowan, who began recording her in her off-hours. The producer played the demo for Lewis, who was impressed and asked who the artist was. To his surprise, he found she was sitting just outside the door. And then he signed her up. Photographed by Marc Baptiste at Ventura Farms in Thousand Oaks, California, on May 20, 2006.

THE SHOWMEN: BROOKS & DUNN Singers, songwriters, guitarists.
Twelve albums (six multi-platinum, three platinum, two gold); 20 No. 1 singles on *Billboard’*s country chart; two Grammys; 15 Country Music Association awards; 21 Academy of Country Music awards. Hard-charging beer-joint fare. Gut-wrenching ballads. Rhythmic numbers perfect for a boot-scootin’ line dance. If it’s country, Brooks & Dunn have been doing it ever since they joined forces on the 1991 mega-hit album Brand New Man. When they met, they were just a couple of country-music journeymen who hadn’t been able to nail that big break. Little did they imagine that a presidential inauguration, a barnful of industry awards, and the craziest stage show this side of Las Vegas (complete with strongmen, rodeo clowns, and BMX bikers) lay in their future. Ronnie Dunn, a rugged Texan who once studied to be a preacher, is a quiet fellow with a sterling, radio-friendly voice. Kix Brooks is a Louisiana wildcat with limitless onstage energy. On their latest album, Hillbilly Deluxe, this pair of troupers show they haven’t lost a thing. Photographed by Jonas Karlsson on Route 66 in Barstow, California, on May 24, 2006.

THE VIRTUOSOS: ALISON KRAUSS AND RALPH STANLEY Bluegrass deity and one of his newgrass disciples.Krauss: 11 albums (solo and with Union Station, two multi-platinum, four gold); 20 Grammys (the most ever for a woman). Stanley: nearly 50 solo albums; more than 100 albums as a member of the Stanley Brothers; three Grammys; inductee, International Bluegrass Music Association Hall of Honor; winner, U.S. Library of Congress Living Legend medal. Besides sharing in the success of the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack and the Down from the Mountain concert tour that followed, Ralph Stanley and Alison Krauss have something in common: both started their careers by impressing audiences with their amazing musicianship (Stanley on the banjo; Krauss on the fiddle), and both have, as the years have rolled by, gained equal renown for their singing. Stanley has one of the most expressive voices in the history of American song, a craggy tenor equally adept at praising the Lord and expressing heartbreak. Krauss has a pure, supple soprano, an instrument at once delicate and earthy. He’s from the mountains of Virginia, and she’s from the flats of Illinois, but musically they’re a perfect match. Photographed by Mark Seliger at Hatch Show Print in Nashville on March 21, 2006.

THE BOHEMIANS: RYAN ADAMS, PATTY GRIFFIN, ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO, TIFT MERRITT, STEVE EARLE, AND DAN ZANES Alt.country musicians.
The term “alt.country” has gotten hazier since it was coined, in the 90s, to describe music that draws on folk and country but is produced and consumed outside the Nashville-L.A. pop machine. But these artists get to the essence of the term: country that is cerebral, devoid of anything hick. Muscular as his music is, Steve Earle has also been unabashedly left-wing—he has made music part and parcel of his quest for social justice. Ryan Adams chronicles youthful angst and heartbreak with more ache and beauty than anyone. Dan Zanes has created what sounds like an oxymoron—cool kids’ music—by taking all kinds of old songs (sea chanteys, cowboy classics, Mexican-border songs) and pulling them into the 21st century. Tift Merritt has a voice that ranges from Lucinda Williams gritty to Joni Mitchell ethereal, a sound that can span from southern rock to Dusty Springfield soul. Alejandro Escovedo’s stirring songs about sorrow and loss have made him a hero among his peers. After battling hepatitis-C for several years, he recently came out with the unflinching The Boxing Mirror. Patty Griffin’s voice exemplifies elegance, but it’s her songwriting that has propelled her into the major leagues—she has been covered by everyone from Bette Midler to the Dixie Chicks, to Emmylou Harris. None other than Earle admits her writing makes him envious. Photographed by Danny Clinch at the Maywood Station in Maywood, New Jersey, on June 20, 2006.

THE SHOWSTOPPER: REBA McENTIRE Singer, songwriter, entertainment dynamo.
More than 30 albums (eight multi-platinum, 10 platinum, six gold); two Grammys; seven Country Music Association awards; 13 Academy of Country Music awards; two memoirs; 12 films; one hit sitcom. Even after all the money, fame, and heartache over her three knockout decades in the field, Reba McEntire is still “the redhead from Oklahoma.” She does just fine with L.A., where she shoots her CW sitcom, the ever popular Reba, and she pleased the cranky critics of New York in 2001, when she played Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun, and thrilled them anew in 2005, when she sang the part of Nellie Forbush in a one-night Carnegie Hall concert performance of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific (the CD is now available from Decca Broadway). But deep down she’s that Oklahoma girl, with a rodeo-champ father and a grandmother who made quilts from old scraps of fabric. She uses her big talent to put across just what it means to be a modern country woman, down-home and feistily independent at the same time. Photographed by Mark Seliger at the Neon Boneyard in Las Vegas on February 11, 2006.

THE DIVA: WYNONNA JUDD Singer, songwriter, actress, memoirist.
Nine solo albums (two multi-platinum, one platinum, one gold); 11 albums as part of the Judds (two multi-platinum, four platinum, five gold); 20 No. 1 Billboard country singles (6 solo, 14 with the Judds); five Grammys (with the Judds); nine Country Music Association awards (with the Judds); nine Academy of Country Music awards (one solo, eight with the Judds); one New York Times best-seller (Coming Home to Myself). She’s got the star quality of Elvis Presley and one of the best sets of pipes ever to grace the airwaves. Throw in an impoverished upbringing, a surprise rise to stardom in the company of her mother as part of the Judds, a newsmaking out-of-wedlock baby, food issues, and a few high-drama Oprah appearances, and you’ve got yourself the quintessential country diva. In her strong solo career, which got under way following her mother’s hepatitis-C diagnosis, in 1990, Wynonna Judd hasn’t let radio formats have the final say over her music. She strays into rock, blues, gospel, and power balladry whenever the spirit moves her. After a few years spent away from the recording studio, during which she was part of an effort that raised $90 million in hurricane relief for Habitat for Humanity, she has just put out a Christmas disc, to be followed by a much-awaited full-length studio album. With her megawatt power she also brightens the TV landscape as a co-host of the USA Network’s Nashville Star. You can’t keep a good woman down. Photographed by Marc Baptiste on Olvera Street in Los Angeles on May 17, 2006.

THE ROCKER: KEITH URBAN Singer, songwriter, musician.
Four solo albums (two multi-platinum, one platinum); seven No. 1 singles on *Billboard’*s country chart; one Grammy; four Country Music Association awards; four Academy of Country Music awards. He has appeared on People magazine’s list of sexiest men. His wedding to the ultra-glamorous Nicole Kidman prompted some over-the-top tabloid coverage. But Keith Urban has said he still feels like “this 15-year-old guy in his first garage band.” Brought up in the small Australian farming town of Caboolture, he has had a guitar in hand since the age of six. He was winning talent shows by age 8, and at 15 he dropped out of high school to continue his education, singing in the beer halls of Australia. Brought up on his dad’s country records—Glen Campbell, Don Williams, Charley Pride—but with a reverence for guitar gods Lindsey Buckingham and Mark Knopfler, Urban made music that wasn’t strictly country, wasn’t strictly rock. It agonized him until he heard the music of John Mellencamp, which taught him to pay no attention to categories and rock out from the heart. Four of the tracks on his first solo album were No. 1 hits in Australia. Nashville was another story. The struggle to make it there took almost 10 years and included a substance-abuse problem, which he kicked in the late 90s. By 2001, U.S. audiences were ripe for rock-country-pop crossovers. Since then he has been knocking fans out with his blend of mean, fast guitar and banjo, contagious hooks, and positive lyrics. For them, this Kidman lady’s nothing more than Keith’s wife. Photographed by Mark Seliger at the Best Western Sunset Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles on February 27, 2006.

THE LONE STARS: JIMMIE DALE GILMORE, STEPHEN BRUTON, CINDY CASHDOLLAR, T BONE BURNETT, JOE ELY, AND JESSI COLTER Musicians, kindred spirits.
Texas is a lonesome place. You can hear it in the pure, keening voice of Jimmie Dale Gilmore, a Zen-trickster music cowboy who now lives outside of Austin. On Come On Back, he sings his daddy’s favorite songs. The ever wandering Joe Ely, of Lubbock, plays with Gilmore from time to time as part of the Flatlanders. Ely, a dynamite songwriter, never saw a border he wouldn’t cross, musical or otherwise. Singer-songwriter-producer T Bone Burnett ran his own recording studio in Fort Worth at age 17, learning the skills he would use as the guiding intelligence behind the multi-platinum, multi-Grammy-winning O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack. His new album is the rhythm-drenched The True False Identity. Another Texan, guitarist Stephen Bruton, a longtime sideman to Kris Kristofferson and Bonnie Raitt, tears it up with his latest, From the Five. Slide player Cindy Cashdollar, of Austin, made her bones with Asleep at the Wheel and has played with Ryan Adams, Bob Dylan, and Van Morrison; her hot debut disc is Slide Show. Jessi Colter, the only Arizonan in this here bunch, rode shotgun with her late husband, Waylon Jennings, for 32 years. Her comeback album, Out of the Ashes, is a real beaut. Photographed by Mark Seliger at the Alamo in San Antonio on August 3, 2006.

THE CROWD-PLEASERS: TRISHA YEARWOOD, MARTINA McBRIDE, AND BILLY CURRINGTON Small-town singers made good.Yearwood: 11 albums (two multi-platinum, four platinum); five No. 1 singles on *Billboard’*s country chart; three Grammys; three Country Music Association awards; two Academy of Country Music awards. McBride: nine albums (three multi-platinum, five platinum); five No. 1 singles on *Billboard’*s country chart; one Grammy; five Country Music Association awards; four Academy of Country Music awards. Currington: two albums (one gold); one No. 1 single on *Billboard’*s country chart. Trisha Yearwood and Martina McBride are small-town girls turned bona fide members of contemporary Nashville royalty. Yearwood, who recently married Garth Brooks following his onstage proposal at Buck Owens’s Crystal Palace, in Bakersfield, California, is unmatched as a singer of heartbreak ballads, as she shows yet again on her comeback album, Jasper County. McBride infuses everything she sings—whether it’s pop-style ballads such as “Love’s the Only House” or classic weepers like “Today I Started Loving You Again”—with high drama and amazing vocal technique. Her latest album, an instant retro-country classic called Timeless, wowed critics while hitting No. 1 on *Billboard’*s country-albums chart. Billy Currington is a young pup who has been making a name for himself in the last few years with two solid albums and tireless touring. He has graced the cover of Playgirl and recorded a hit duet with crossover goddess Shania Twain, but he hasn’t forgotten his upbringing in Rincon, Georgia, a place of one traffic light and sweet iced tea. Photographed by Mark Seliger in Watertown, Tennessee, on March 16, 2006.

THE VETERAN: PORTER WAGONER Singer, songwriter, standard-bearer.
More than 100 albums; four Grammys; two Country Music Association awards; member, Country Music Hall of Fame. With the silver pompadour and $10,000 Nudie suits of rhinestone wagon wheels and cacti, Porter Wagoner has remained true to his Opry roots. Born in West Plains, Missouri, he got his start when a neighborhood grocer put him on a local radio show. This led to a recording contract and the now classic 1955 hit “Satisfied Mind,” a gentle reminder to poor folk that rich people have problems, too. He became a stalwart of the Opry, where he still performs today, as one of its most senior members. His flashy but accessible showmanship earned Wagoner his own syndicated show in 1960. One of his greatest gifts is for discovering talent—in 1967 he enlisted an unknown named Dolly Parton to be his partner; together they made 15 duets that reached the Top 10. Her parting gift to the show and her partner was the song “I Will Always Love You,” a sentiment no doubt shared by everyone in the country establishment, which celebrated Wagoner’s induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2002. Photographed in his dressing room at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville by Mark Seliger on March 27, 2006.

THE IDOL: CARRIE UNDERWOOD Singer, songwriter, musician.
One album (multi-platinum, No. 1 on *Billboard’*s country-albums chart, No. 2 on the pop); one platinum single; one gold single; two Academy of Country Music awards; two Country Music Television awards. Carrie Underwood’s music doesn’t fit some people’s notions of what country should be. These people tend to be cutthroat music critics who live on the coasts. Country-music fans, on the other hand, are perfectly willing to make room in their iPods for an adorable, big-voiced vegetarian who won her fame as the victor of *American Idol’*s fourth season, even if she strays into pop and rock. It doesn’t hurt that she’s from Muskogee, Oklahoma, or that she’s adept in the lost cowgirl art of yodeling. “Jesus, Take the Wheel,” the first single from Underwood’s debut album, Some Hearts, is as country as it gets, as evinced by its having spent six weeks as *Billboard’*s No. 1 country single. Expect a second album only when the first one stops selling. Photographed by Mark Seliger in Los Angeles on February 21, 2006.

THE OUTLAWS: HANK WILLIAMS JR. AND MERLE HAGGARD Singers, songwriters, musicians, barroom gods.Williams: More than 100 albums (one multi-platinum, seven platinum, 13 gold); one Grammy; seven Country Music Association awards; six Academy of Country Music awards; four Emmys (for his Monday Night Football theme). Haggard: More than 250 albums (four platinum, five gold); two Grammys; one Grammy Lifetime Achievement award; six Country Music Association awards; 17 Academy of Country Music awards; member, Country Music Hall of Fame. The number of longnecks these two icons of outlaw country have emptied could fill a train yard. They’re kindred spirits. Merle Haggard once sang a song called “I’m Always on a Mountain When I Fall,” and Hank Williams Jr. (nicknamed “Bocephus”) once actually fell off a mountain, resulting in near-fatal injuries that took two years to heal. Both men underwent heroic turnarounds in order to achieve their potential. Haggard was doing hard time in San Quentin (he saw Johnny Cash’s famous show) when he decided to get serious about his life and his music, a move that paid off soon after his release. Williams, who made his Grand Ole Opry debut at age 11, moved through his early career playing a creditable version of his late father. Then, on the 1976 album Hank Williams, Jr. and Friends, he merged rowdy southern rock with his bad country self, alienating some fans but finding his identity in the process. Hear the fruits of his transformation on That’s How They Do It in Dixie: The Essential Collection, and don’t miss Haggard’s second album-length collaboration with George Jones, Kickin’ Out the Footlights … Again.Photographed by Mark Seliger at the Country Western Bar and Grill in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, on March 28, 2006.

THE ADVENTURERS: JIMMY BUFFETT, BOB SEGER, SHERYL CROW, JOHN MELLENCAMP, AND KID ROCK Roots rockers.
If you didn’t already know, country is a state of mind. Having worked with Willie Nelson and Emmylou Harris, Sheryl Crow, who keeps a house in Nashville, has incorporated into her career the music that produced the soundtrack for the rootsy rocker’s road trip across the country and toward stardom decades ago. Who knew when Jimmy Buffett moved to Nashville, in 1969, that he would one day add best-selling author and entrepreneur to his résumé? Buffett, who has made a career out of musical escapism, headed for Key West and began a Parrothead craze that helped make his 2003 duet with Alan Jackson, “It’s Five O’clock Somewhere,” a No. 1 country hit. John Mellencamp has been the heartland’s soul since his breakthrough album, American Fool, 24 years ago. His founding of Farm Aid with Willie Nelson and Neil Young more than 20 years ago also makes him its hero. No one man has been blared out of more teenagers’ cars than Bob Seger, whose gritty and wistful voice has carried a four-decade career. The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer’s new Face the Promise, his 20th album, will be heard by adolescents and adults alike on country radio stations this fall. Although he began his career in the hard-to-tread region between rap and rock, Kid Rock now considers Nashville, along with his native Detroit, home. Never far from his upbringing—except when he’s getting hitched to Pamela Anderson in Saint-Tropez (they read their vows from his-and-hers BlackBerrys)—Rock has a guttural voice and down-home lyrics that are pure Americana. Strength, hope, escape—sounds like a great country song. Photographed by Mark Seliger at the Queens County Farm Museum in New York City on July 26, 2006.

THE GEORGIA PEACH: JENNIFER NETTLES Singer, songwriter.
With the Jennifer Nettles Band, five albums; with Sugarland, two albums (one multi-platinum); three Top 10 singles on *Billboard’*s country chart; one Academy of Country Music award. Jennifer Nettles, a singer-songwriter with a supple, powerful voice, made five albums as part of the Jennifer Nettles Band, an ambitious outfit that had a devoted following throughout the Southeast starting in the late 90s. Looking for something different, she teamed up with fellow Atlanta-scene singer-songwriters Kristian Bush and Kristen Hall to form Sugarland, a pop-country group with upbeat material custom-made for radio and arenas. After building a fan base in Georgia, Sugarland took Nashville by storm. Its fresh debut album, Twice the Speed of Life, has spawned three hit singles. Along the way, Nettles managed to record a duet with Bon Jovi, “Who Says You Can’t Go Home,” which hit No. 1 on *Billboard’*s country chart. Hall left the band early in 2006, but even as a duo Sugarland seems a sure bet to beat the sophomore slump with their new one, Enjoy the Ride.Photographed by Marc Baptiste at the Bonnie Springs Ranch in Blue Diamond, Nevada, on May 22, 2006.

THE SONGBIRD: LeANN RIMES Singer, songwriter.
Thirteen albums (three multi-platinum, two platinum, four gold, five No. 1 on *Billboard’*s country-albums chart); two No. 1 singles on *Billboard’*s country chart; two Grammys; one Country Music Association award; four Academy of Country Music awards; one feature film; one TV movie; three children’s books (as co-author). LeAnn Rimes, the owner of one of country music’s most sublime voices, has packed a whole lot of career into her 24 years. She won Star Search at age 8 and made an almost scary major-label recording debut at 13, conjuring Patsy Cline with her retro-country single “Blue.” Since then she has put out 10 more studio albums; gone through lawsuits against her father and record label (both patched up now); seen one of her singles, the 1997 mega-hit “How Do I Live,” spend a record 200 weeks on the country charts; and gotten herself married (at age 19) to dancer-actor-songwriter Dean Sheremet. After moving emphatically away from her usual sound and image with Twisted Angel in 2002, she returned to country music proper with This Woman last year and Whatever We Wanna in 2006. She solidified her commitment to her musical roots by moving out of Los Angeles and into a mansion in Nashville, which she shares with her husband and a pack of dogs. Photographed by Norman Jean Roy at the Plaza Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas on February 15, 2006.

THE RENEGADES: DWIGHT YOAKAM, ROSANNE CASH, EMMYLOU HARRIS, AND LYLE LOVETT Genre-bending singers, songwriters, musicians.Yoakam: 21 albums (two multi-platinum, four platinum, three gold); two Grammys; 14 films; one frozen-food line (Dwight Yoakam’s Bakersfield Biscuits Brand). Cash: 15 albums; 11 No. 1 singles on *Billboard’*s country chart; one Grammy; one book of short stories. Harris: 30 solo albums (eight gold); 12 Grammys; three Country Music Association awards; dozens of guest appearances. Lovett: 12 albums (six gold); four Grammys; 10 films. Not everyone fits the formula. From the start of her eclectic career as a singer-songwriter and harmony vocalist par excellence, Emmylou Harris has gone against convention. The latest in her string of sublime releases is a collaboration with Mark Knopfler, All the Roadrunning. When Kentucky-born, Ohio-raised Dwight Yoakam arrived in Nashville, he found he was too purist for the country-music capital of the world. He had better luck among the hard-core punk fans in Los Angeles and has been an amazingly consistent singer and songwriter ever since, as you can hear on his latest, Blame the Vain. After growing up on a horse ranch in Texas, Lyle Lovett got his professional start in Nashville, but his ear soon took him toward the jazzy Americana sound of his most recent disc, My Baby Don’t Tolerate. Rosanne Cash’s dark muse led her from Nashville to New York City, where she has resided since 1990. Black Cadillac, her latest gem—about the deaths over a two-year period of her father, Johnny Cash, her mother, Vivian Liberto Cash Distin, and her stepmother, June Carter Cash—shows her at her introspective best. Photographed by Mark Seliger at Sun Studio in Memphis on March 23, 2006.

THE QUEEN OF COUNTRY: DOLLY PARTON Singer, songwriter, actress, theme-park entrepreneur.
Seventy-three albums; 41 Top 10 albums on *Billboard’*s country-albums chart; 25 No. 1 singles on *Billboard’*s country chart; seven Grammys; eight Country Music Association awards, six Academy of Country Music awards; member, Country Music Hall of Fame and the National Academy of Popular Music/Songwriters Hall of Fame; winner, U.S. Library of Congress Living Legend medal; 2006 Kennedy Center honoree. One of the great American success stories, Dolly Parton has gone from a small cabin in the Smoky Mountains of eastern Tennessee to international stardom. With all the accolades that have come with selling an estimated 100 million albums over a four-decade career, she has never lost her charm, her sense of humor, or her identity as a country girl. Even her birth was country: the doctor who delivered her, on January 19, 1946, was paid with a sack of cornmeal. At the age of 13 she appeared at the Grand Ole Opry. Her first Top 40 hit, “Dumb Blonde,” in 1967, showed she knew how to market herself from early on. Belying the cartoonish image, Dolly is one of country music’s best guitar pickers and perhaps its most prolific songwriter. She has reportedly composed and published more than 3,000, of which she has recorded some 350. And no matter what the cultural weather, she knows how to stay relevant. In 1980 she starred with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin in the workingwoman’s comedy 9 to 5, and her recent album, Those Were the Days, a collection of songs from the 1960s and 70s written by others, subtly addresses life during wartime. It cracked the Top 10 on *Billboard’*s country-albums chart, while her recent award-winning duet with Brad Paisley, “When I Get Where I’m Going,” reached No. 1 on the country-singles chart. And her song for the movie Transamerica, “Travelin’ Thru,” was nominated for an Oscar last year. Her rootsy music from the last decade fills four discs of The Acoustic Collection, a brand-new boxed set with plenty of extras. A talent like hers never goes out of style. Photographed by Mark Seliger at the Grand Masonic Lodge in Nashville on July 27, 2006.